Page image

29

"due course a draft trusteeship agreement for the approval of the United Nations. Similar declarations were made by the Governments of the United Kingdom, Australia, and Belgium in respect of territories held by them under mandate. The delegates of France and South Africa also made statements before the General Assembly of the intentions of their Governments towards the territories held by them under mandate. They, however, expressed reservations which gave rise to considerable discussion in the ■early meetings of Committee Four. The South African delegate announced that his Government desired, with the expected agreement of the people of the territory concerned, to amalgamate their mandated territory of South-west Africa into the Union. The French delegate stated that his Government would study the terms under which her mandates in Togoland and the Cameroons could become trust territories, provided that the rights now enjoyed by the populations concerned "by reason of their integration into the French community" were protected. The Chairman of the New Zealand delegation appealed strongly to the delegates of both countries to clarify the position of their Governments. He emphasized that when the principles of the trusteeship system were drawn up at the San Francisco Conference it had been agreed that Powers holding mandates and administering them under the authority ■of the League of Nations should and would in the first instance now recognize the authority of the United Nations and its Trusteeship Council. It had never at any time been suggested or recognized that mandated territories belonged to the mandatory Powers, or that any such Power could of its own volition annex to itself territory held under mandate. Whatever might be the merits of amalgamation in any particular case, the proper and the only way of bringing it about was for the State concerned to acknowledge the authority of the United Nations and its Trusteeship Council by declaring its readiness and taking steps to transfer its mandate to the trusteeship system, and then, and only then, to place before the United Nations its proposal for amalgamation. At the next meeting of Committee Four the South African delegate ■ elaborated the arguments of his Government in favour of the amalgamation of South-west Africa with the Union, but he emphasized that no steps would be taken in that direction until all the necessary evidence had been gathered. He now stated also that their proposal would then be submitted to the judgment of the General Assembly. After a delay which coincided with a change of regime, the French ■Government made an unqualified declaration of their intention to transfer the French mandates to the trusteeship system. The position of all six mandatory member States having thus been clarified, Committee Four turned to a detailed examination of the most effective practical means of implementing the provisions of the Charter on trusteeship. A large number of proposals were put forward, and a sub-committee on which the New Zealand delegation was represented

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert